Turn a PC Off or Leave It On?
Atrrocket asked if it’s best to shut off a PC every night or leave it on.
Call me a tree-hugger if you must, but I see no reason to keep a computer on when it’s not in use. That wastes electricity, which is bad for your pocketbook and bad for the planet. And it’s probably bad for the computer.
Yes, I have seen occasional arguments that shutting down a computer, then starting it up cold, cause more wear and tear than leaving it on for 12 hours. I just don’t buy them. All computers potentially suffer from heat problems, and one that never gets a chance to cool down will suffer from more of them.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/240118/turn_a_pc_off_or_leave_it_on_.html
OR . . .
Leaving Computers On Helps Them Last Longer
You are finished using your PC for the day. Should you turn it off or leave it on?
You take a deep breath, rub your tired eyes and prepare to push away from your personal computer after a lengthy instant message exchange, video viewing or analysis of your monthly budget—maybe all three. But before you exit cyberspace, a decision must be made: Should you shut the machine down, place it into “sleep” mode or do nothing at all?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-computers-sleep
Which just shows that surfing the web may be hazardous to ones mental stability. But, like a good aeronautical engineer, you can always compromise.
My particular compromise is leaving my computer going as long as I’m awake. Sometimes fifteen hours, sometimes twenty. But the computer stays on. Love those screen savers.
What brought this to mind, and the reason I mentioned it, is reading a remark by a blogger expressing surprise at the length of a visit he had on his site. If it was I, then I cannot apologize. I can explain that while it does not take an hour to read current and an archived article or so, I do, on occasion get called away from my computer.
When that happens I leave. It doesn’t matter to me whether I’m on a site or on the reader or where ever in my surfing. If I’m called away,too bad, or if I decide to leave it too bad, also.
The computer stays on and I leave it – until sleepy time shut down procedures occur.
And, yes, it could well have been me that left the bloggers site open for an hour. Others I know I have left open for several hours, until returning from a shopping trip or dealing with business of one sort or the other.
For which I apologize, and assure one and all I don’t pick victims, I simply get off my but and leave the computer to go to screen saver and then dark on its own. The screen saver is set to thirty minutes after an eight minute delay.
It’s never occurred to me to worry what happens to the sites I may or may not have behind the screen saver.
I’ll have to think about that, somewhat, soon.
_____
From the reaches,
Ten Whiskey
Ten's space 
only thing bothers me staying on site for extended periods is hackers traveling on other sites looking for doors
I close off when called away
Hello, John. I can understand that. I do not put anything on the computer I don’t want known. No finances, no personal letters, none of that. I still have locked files here for that nonsense.